Why am I getting Amber Alerts?

[Ermz]

I thought the Emergency Broadcast thingy is only supposed to be for life and death situations that might be directly impacting me? So why am I receiving Amber Alerts through it? I've gotten two in the last half hour, and they're for nowhere near where I am now. It's really aggravating that we can't opt out of these.

[devicemodder]

Turns out that the reason these cannot be disabled has to do with the fact that they are using what would be called in the states, Presidential alerts. This is a clear abuse of presidential alerts. It would be like Trudeau using it to say that election season is coming up. Should only be used for actual national emergencies like if WW3 were declared or for natural disasters or other serious alerts.

[mhinc]

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@ThirstyTurtle wrote:

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@WestCoasterBC wrote:

An amber alert is considered a “civil” emergency. It can be a localized or province wide alert, where the child went missing. I don’t think if it was a child or loved one you knew you’d find it annoying.

You can find more information here and here.

Would you find it annoying if I was your pilot on your next flight and made a critical mistake because I didn't get a proper sleep after being awoken by a blaring loud amber alert? How about your heart surgeon, who with only 4 hours of rest before opening you up didn't have oh such a steady hand? Would that be annoying to you?

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@ThirstyTurtle Well said!  Couldn't have said it better myself!

[NFtoBC]

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@ThirstyTurtle wrote:

I too will be taking screen shots of these posts and filing a complaint with the CRTC should Telus decide to delete them.  

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You can spend time doing that, but since this forum does not fall under the CRTC mandate, I doubt your complaint would go very far.

[Im_not_a_bot]

The amber alerts on the alert ready system are supposed to be sent through the low priority bands. The low priority bands, we have the option to opt out of. The problem here is that police departments are sending the alert over the priorty bands.

Anyone who wishes to join me in taking action against the abuse of the alert ready system, I invite you to file a complaint with the alleged governing body, the public safety authority. 1 800 830 3118.

You will have to leave a message as it's just a mailbox. If I can get a direct line to an agent I will will make sure to post an update.

The abuse of the alert ready system needs to stop. Police departments should only have the authority to issue the alert, not change what band it is transmitted on. Canadians need to hold the governing bodies accountable for this system and protect the rights we allegedly have in using this system.

Dont complain to telus. Telus has zero means to do anything about this and only has access to the same information you or I have using Google. Let's stand together and fight against this abuse. Unless enlarge number of us call to have this addressed, nothing will ever change!

[Nighthawk]

What exactly are you talking about? The alerts are sent through LTE. They cannot be opted out of, and it's the CRTC that has required the alerts. It's also not the police that send the alerts out. It'll be the provincial or federal government that is doing it. (Provincial: https://emergencyalert.alberta.ca/)

https://www.alertready.ca/#faq

Can I opt out of receiving alerts?

Given the importance of warning Canadians of imminent threats to the safety of life and property, the CRTC requires wireless service providers to distribute alerts on all compatible wireless devices connected to an LTE network in the target area. Therefore, it is not possible to opt out of receiving the alerts. Unlike radio and television broadcasting, which often has broad areas of coverage, wireless public alerting is geo-targeted and can be very specific to a limited area of coverage. As a result, if an emergency alert reaches your wireless device, you are located in an area where there is an imminent danger. Consult this webpage for more information.

In general, the alerts respect the settings of your compatible wireless device. For example, a compatible wireless device that is set to silent will display an emergency alert, but will not play the alert tone. The emergency alert sound will usually play at whatever the current volume setting is on the wireless device. If your wireless device is set to silent, no sound will accompany the emergency alert message. However, this can differ depending on your wireless device and in some instances the alert sound may override your user settings. Please contact your telecom service provider to discuss your settings. 

Who sends emergency alerts?

Only authorized Government Issuers are responsible for issuing emergency alerts. These include federal, provincial, and territorial governments.

Federally, emergency alerts are issued most frequently by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Each provincial or territorial government decides who will have the authority to issue alerts within their jurisdictions. For example, emergency alerts could be issued by provincial or territorial emergency management offices or in some cases, by municipal emergency management offices or local police and fire departments.

Media companies, including television, radio stations, cable and satellite distributors, and wireless service providers receive these emergency alerts and relay them to their customers.

[Syaoran]

They might not want you to opt out but the service in Android is easy enough to remove with a simple ADB command.  Rooting also gives you the ability to freeze and or disable the app that annoys people with this annoyance.

[WestCoasterBC]

The average consumer isn’t going to root their phones.

[Syaoran]

You don't need to root your device to remove it.  ADB commands do not require root.  

[Thundercat]

Can you provide which file you freeze? I can't find any info online.b

[Syaoran]

I'm sure it will vary by device, but the service is referred to as CMAS for short and each OEM has a different name for the package.  Use a Package Info app to find the proper name for the service and use one of the various ADB commands with ADB Shell to remove or disable it.  If you use the pm uninstall command, the file is still in the back up and will restore with a factory reset, but it just removes the service from being installed actively.